Global opencast mining truck market expected to grow to 2020

The global market for opencast mining trucks is expected to grow steadily to 2020, primarily driven by the growing demand from mining companies operating across the Asia Pacific (APAC) region, says leading data and analytics company GlobalData.

The company forecasts that increased production at existing mines and over 270 new opencast mines scheduled to commence operations globally, will push the total population of mining trucks in operation by over 8000 from 105 000 at the end of 2017 to over 113 000 by the end of 2020. These numbers include the typical 90 - 400 t mining trucks, as well as smaller over 20 t ‘tipper’ trucks and articulated dump trucks, the latter two types accounting for around 35% of the total and particularly prevalent in APAC markets.

Overall, the APAC region accounted for 23.5% of total opencast mining trucks, followed by South and Central America (18.1%), North America (17.5%) and Oceania (13.8%) in 2017.

According to Vinneth Bajaj, Senior Analyst at GlobalData, the largest increase in the number of opencast mining trucks to 2020, will be in APAC, where the total population of opencast mining trucks is expected to grow by 2200 by 2020, equivalent to 23.8% of the growth between 2017 and 2020. Within APAC, Indonesia, China and India are the key markets, with Caterpillar, Volvo and Komatsu the top suppliers.

However, Middle East and Africa is expected to have the highest rise in share of the opencast mining truck population, increasing from 10.7% in 2017 to 11.2% in 2020. Caterpillar, Komatsu, Bell, Volvo and Terex are the top equipment providers here. South Africa, Iran and Botswana are expected to be the major markets through 2020.

Caterpillar, Komatsu, Volvo, Belaz and BEML are the key players in the global opencast mining trucks market with an estimated 70% of the market between them. Other significant companies within the remaining 30% include Scania, Terex, Hitachi, Tata and Bell.